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"Chris Plante grew up in the suburbs of Kansas City, MO
where his fear of fast moving objects and tendency to easily
bruise made him a last pick when it came to team sports. Defeated,
Plante took to books, fort building and, eventually, videogames.
The latter became something of an obsession for Plante during his
developmental years. With the help of the local mom-and-pop rental
shop, he went through every new release, no matter the console or
the genre, with a voracious appetite.

Having finally overcome his battle with weight, Plante used high
school and his early years of college as a time to step away from
video games and develop social skills, though by his 21st birthday
he could no longer resist his old flame. Like a relapsing addict,
he dove headfirst back into gamer culture, catching up on the
great import and niche titles he missed from the SEGA Saturn to
the original Xbox.

Prior to UGO, Plante took internships and jobs with various
entertainment companies including 20th Century Fox/Regency and the
BBC. He wrote "Why We Play" for GameSetWatch.com
and currently co-authors the video game humor blog Hardcasual.net." You can find his
contributions to UGO's Games Blog here.

Chris

Blog

Players returning to the world of Costume Quest for the latest expansion pack, Grubbins on Ice, might expect a frost-bit adventure fit for the fireside this holiday season. What they will find is something different, but at the same time sort of obvious, in execution. Grubbins on Ice is a continuation of Costume Quest's Halloween experience, witches warts and all.

First off, this is no Christmas game. That will probably sting anyone who hoped Costume Quest would transcend Halloween, that it would be to video games what Charlie Brown is to cartoons: a colorful, charming lens through which we enjoy every holiday.

That's not the case.

Barring revelations from future DLC (which gauging from the final credits could be announced at any time), Costume Quest is a story in which Halloween runs year round. When you play, you're not experiencing the major holidays through the characters so much as you're experiencing the holidays through Halloween and its themes of monsters, trickery, candy and, above all else, dressing up.

Grubbins on Ice introduces the Yeti and Eyeball customs, amongst many others, by plopping you on enemy ground. When Lucy, Everett's main squeeze, is kidnapped by evil-crow-thing Araxiam, Everett and twins Wren and Reynold give chase through an inter-dimensional portal. And so the kids begin another adventure, this time in the monster land of Repugia.

Seeing life in Repugia is a delight, requiring from its visitors a couple hours to glide over nauseous rivers and hike through muddy dungeons. Grubbin domesticity is just as hilariously mundane as our own: taxes, lovers' quarrels, and a sense of political malaise (none of these Grubbins have the oomph to stand up to Araxia's rule!) flow through Repugia like its neon green waters.

In short, booking a flight to Repugia is worth the cost of a ticket.

What will be immediately noticeable to those who quested the original campaign are the small, but substantial, fixes -- namely the save system. You can now save by batting posts marked by a blue disk. Cut-scenes can also be paused (a boon for the weak-blattered). To freshen the story, tweaks have been made to the design; you're not trick-or-treating, you're collecting candy from monsters to fund a revolution against Araxia -- as you quickly learn, even the monsters find the bird to be a bit of a squawk.

But for the most part, Grubbins on Ice is the same, but more. Same fights, same character designs, same door-to-door adventures. More costumes, more stickers, more cards. For fans of the original game, that's probably enough.

For the rest, it's hard to recommend Grubbins on Ice if you weren't taken by the main game. And if you haven't played the main game, you should before digging into the DLC; the add-on drops you into the action without much in the way of a tutorial, making some puzzles more frustrating than they need be.

Hopefully, the next DLC (I mean, it would be silly for Double Fine to quit now) expands on the game with more to do. And more to say.

When you finally learn the story behind the Yeti festival, the sweetness of the storytelling at Double Fine shines so bright it could practically melt the snow. But for most of the game, the journey's fought in the mud...far from the ice the title promises.

Wii Fit is your fast track to orgasms, more of the Activision vs. Infinity Ward playground fight, championship Starcraft is about as legitimate as pro wrestling, we're skeptical of X-Com as an FPS, and we run through a bumper crop of listener call-in questions. Oh, and James Mielke crushes all our hopes and dreams by going and getting married like a big jerk.

(37.3 MB) - Length: 1:21:26)

Why Hello There!

Tina's on vacation, so I'll be your spirit guide for this week's Oddcast. Here's what we cooked up, padawans.